ampfixer
Wow, my stuff is primitive compared to that amp. My hat's off to you sir.

I'll bet your amps sound better than mine does right now.  There are some disadvantages to folding what would have been a very long Fender amp as it puts some things closer together than they'd normally be.  I'm hoping a small amount of tweaking will clean things up.  When it's loud, everything is fine
 
At the time I wanted it all, but I've since seen the merit of well-done simple designs.  That's on my list of things to do.

It really looks like a fine piece of work and very ambitious. I love the vibrato that Fender used in the brown Concert amps. My 63 Concert sounded like it had a univibe inside it. It's a very complicated circuit, if you got it working you should be proud.
 
I never really finish any design. I tweak and tune for quite a while to optimize the operation. Version 2 is always better, and version 3 better still.

ampfixer
I love the vibrato that Fender used in the brown Concert amps.

 
It was reading a lot of comments like this that made me want to build the circuit.  I'd never heard it myself.  It's pretty fascinating.  It's been a while but I think it splits the signal into high and low frequencies, has them ride (differently) on opposing sine waves, then both sides are recombined and the sine wave cancels out.  Or something like that.  It does sound really nice and is one part of the amp that turned out just fine.
 
The circuit only uses 2-1/2 tubes so I was able to use the remaining 1/2 tube for some makeup power before going on to the output section.
 

Nice work on the board. My understanding of the circuit is pretty much the same as yours. It's the only fender vibrato that I really like. I find it interesting that you use such a variety of components. Did you select different caps for different effects? I see 5 different cap types, not including the electrolytics.

 
John, have you figured out how to post images yet ?  I'm sure I'm not the only one who's waiting for some show and tell from your end.  Sounds like we could all learn some lore from you.  I use photobucket.com which is easy and free.  Just drag pictures from windows onto the web page.
 

ampfixer
Did you select different caps for different effects? I see 5 different cap types, not including the electrolytics.

Good question !  No, it definately wasn't for effect.  I just went through my files and didn't find much other than my parts lists, but I'm pretty sure they were chosen on the basis of value and voltage (naturally) and then which company had the best reputation (being based on quality, folklore, or both).  So Sprague, Mallory and the like.  There was a reason for using the three disc caps for the oscillator but I don't remember what it was.
 
It would take years of building (like you may have) to discern differences in tone based on types of parts used.  I just wanted high grade parts that wouldn't fail.  So it's more of a military spec amp than a tone machine lovingly put together from odd parts that were individually tested for the sound quality.  Not that I wouldn't want to do that, but it'll have to wait till I retire !  I've always had trouble with the fact that the tone we all love is the direct result of using cheap parts.
 
I just noticed your mention of tubestore.com.  That's where I got most of my tubes from, other than a few NOS tubes I was lucky to come across at a local fleamarket.  We moved right after my amp building spree and everything is still in boxes - oscilloscope, tube tester, Sprague capacitor tester, and a nice Heathkit IP-17 400v tube-based power supply.  I just went through some old posts, and see that I spent at least two years researching things before building the above amp in 2008.  I've forgotten most of it !
 
 

Wow Paul, that's a hell of an amp! I can understand the "want it all" concept you were going for. If you could get it all tweaked like you want, I bet it'd be a really nice amp.

But like ampfixer says, second and third build are more refined.

Real nice wood work btw.

batsbrew

my mesa boogie Mark 2B, runs 6L6's.....
and i've always used mesa branded tubes, they sound and work well,
last a long time.
 

I always use.mesa tubes in my Mk IIb also. And in my Mk IV.

But in my Carvin Nomad that has EL84's in it, I have a bunch of old tubes that I like to switch out and play around with the preamp tubes. Some of the best are some black plate RCA's 12AT7's. Those have a real good old school sound.

Funny thing is, in the Boogie amp, only the Mesa tubes works best in it. I tried some of the old tubes and it just didn't sound as good as with the Mesa tubes.

Grem
If you could get it all tweaked like you want, I bet it'd be a really nice amp.

The idea was for it to be a test bed that had all the bits and I could then play around with each circuit as a hobby and learn what the various parts really did.  But then we moved and I went back to school and my spare time vanished completely.
 
Here's a contraption I threw together to hold the amp which is pretty heavy fully loaded.
 

Wwow. I could get into that for sure. In fact at one time I had my Mk IIB out of it's box just trying different tubes in it. Left it like that for better part of six months.

I see you had a few options to keep that "contraption" in the spot you needed!! Chains, twine, and a nice heavy duty handle to turn it!!

Grem
Chains, twine, and a nice heavy duty handle to turn it!!

The chain is overkill but it was quick and adjustable.  Without it the transformers' weight made the whole thing rotate.  The two handles are workbench vise screws that can be screwed in and out (the wooden plates are attached to the screws) making the whole thing a 'clamp' that can be opened and closed by turning the handles, so (in theory) it could be used for different amps if they fit within the uprights.  Turning is just done by grabbing the amp itself.  The twine is actually an elastic to keep the handle/screw from turning while changing the amp's orientation, which would loosen the clamp.
 
It's a bit tricky getting the amp in and out of the clamp since I have to hold the amp with one hand and operate the screws with other and the amp is heavy.